This will sound off topic, but.... Most of us have heard that the music web site Dilettante was shut down recently. I can only provide a good guess as to the reason but I bet it is close or right on target: it ran out of money. Many small businesses fail for the same reason – not enough up-front capital. However, there is a difference in this case and that is that the site is (was) an arts site. As such, it needed patrons - the kind that help fuel the top orchestras and ballet companies and museums of the world - not investors and not more members and not more advertisers. Without philanthropy, the arts would be dead. That’s not the way things should be, but, as long as the massive money goes to Frank Sinatra and Liberace and the Beatles and Lady Gaga, that’s the way it is. With patrons by his side, Mozart might have lived a longer life. Bach and Handel and Haydn and Beethoven and Wagner and Stravinsky did. What does any of this have to do with violins? We are all in this together, whether we are on stage front and center at the Met or playing last chair in the second violin section of a small regional orchestra.
Showing posts with label Amsterdam Philharmonic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amsterdam Philharmonic. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Why Dilettante went down
This will sound off topic, but.... Most of us have heard that the music web site Dilettante was shut down recently. I can only provide a good guess as to the reason but I bet it is close or right on target: it ran out of money. Many small businesses fail for the same reason – not enough up-front capital. However, there is a difference in this case and that is that the site is (was) an arts site. As such, it needed patrons - the kind that help fuel the top orchestras and ballet companies and museums of the world - not investors and not more members and not more advertisers. Without philanthropy, the arts would be dead. That’s not the way things should be, but, as long as the massive money goes to Frank Sinatra and Liberace and the Beatles and Lady Gaga, that’s the way it is. With patrons by his side, Mozart might have lived a longer life. Bach and Handel and Haydn and Beethoven and Wagner and Stravinsky did. What does any of this have to do with violins? We are all in this together, whether we are on stage front and center at the Met or playing last chair in the second violin section of a small regional orchestra. 
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anton Kersjes
Anton Kersjes was a Dutch violinist and conductor born on August 17, 1923 (Heifetz was 22 years old.) After World War Two, he began his career as a violinist with the Tuschinski Theatre Orchestra in Amsterdam. He later established his reputation as a conductor of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra - not to be confused with the Royal Concertgebouw. The Amsterdam Phil started its life in 1953 as the Kunstmaand Orchestra and adopted its new name (Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1969. It then became - after a merger with two other Dutch orchestras - the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985. In addition to conducting a huge number of concert, opera, and ballet performances, he was Assistant Director of the Maastrich Conservatory. He also recorded a few albums, a few of which are still available. As far as I know, Anton Kersjes never conducted in the U.S. Outside of Holland, his name is almost never mentioned. He died on December 2, 2004, at age 81.
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